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Americans Question Fairness of Tax System

Regardless of any changes made to the tax code, many Americans continue to question the fairness of what they have to pay.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 40% of American Adults believe people who makes twice as much as they do pay less than twice as much in income taxes. Only 14% think those individuals actually do pay twice as much in taxes, while 12% say they pay more than twice as much. One-in-three adults (34%) are not sure.
(To see survey question wording, click here.)

These results are similar to those found last year
and in 2009. But in March 2008, nearly half (48%) believed people who make twice as much paid less than twice as much in taxes.

Conversely, 38% of adults now believe that people who earn half as much money as they do pay less than half as much in taxes, down from 44% a year ago. Seventeen percent (17%) think those individuals do pay half as much in income taxes, while only nine percent (9%) believe they pay more than half. Thirty-six percent (36%) of adults are undecided.

The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted February 19-20, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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